2005 has been a year of tempests both literal and figurative. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma led a record pack of devastating storms; the issue of whether to teach intelligent design in the classroom went to trial; the decision about whether to make “Plan B” emergency contraception available over the counter was postponed; a celebrated stem cell researcher was revealed as a fraud; and the threat of avian flu loomed large.
But there were exhilarating developments as well. Long believed extinct, the ivory-billed woodpecker was detected in the Big Woods of Arkansas; astronomers discovered a tenth planet in our solar system–complete with its own moon; physicists created a new state of matter using quarks and gluons; and the genome of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, was sequenced.
These are just some of the biggest science stories of 2005. We’ve listed our top 25 picks below, in no particular order. But there were, of course, many more findings of note. So consider this list a jumping off point for a fuller exploration of our site as you look back at the year in science. –The Editors
Dover Intelligent Design Trial Preparing for a Pandemic Plan B Blocked Reading the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Chimp Genome–and First Fossils–Unveiled Ice Core Extends Climate Record Back 650,000 Years Brain Scans Helps Scientists “Read” Minds
Tenth Planet Discovered Stem Cell Meltdown Hurricane Katrina Scientists Find Soft Tissue in T. rex Fossil Gamma-Ray Mystery Solved Live Giant Squid Photographed for First Time Chunk of Universe’s Missing Matter Found Genetic Analysis Suggests Human Brain Is a Work-in-Progress Conservationist Plan Would Give Lions, Elephants a Home on the Range Flexible ‘E-skin’ Could Endow Robots with Humanlike Sense of Touch Cave Bear DNA Sequencing Could Be Boon for Human Evolution Studies New State of Matter Is ‘Nearly Perfect’ LiquidHormone Spray Elicits Trust in Humans “Extinct” Woodpecker Flies Back from the Beyond Starless Galaxy Said Found Early Mammal Dined on Dinosaurs Piercing the haze, Huygens gets a view of Titan’s surface Making Light of Silicon
But there were exhilarating developments as well. Long believed extinct, the ivory-billed woodpecker was detected in the Big Woods of Arkansas; astronomers discovered a tenth planet in our solar system–complete with its own moon; physicists created a new state of matter using quarks and gluons; and the genome of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, was sequenced.
Dover Intelligent Design Trial
Tenth Planet Discovered
